Thermo-electrically pumped light-emitting diodes

ABSTRACT

Contrary to conventional wisdom, which holds that light-emitting diodes (LEDs) should be cooled to increase efficiency, the LEDs disclosed herein are heated to increase efficiency. Heating an LED operating at low forward bias voltage (e.g., V&lt;k B T/q) can be accomplished by injecting phonons generated by non-radiative recombination back into the LED&#39;s semiconductor lattice. This raises the temperature of the LED&#39;s active rejection, resulting in thermally assisted injection of holes and carriers into the LED&#39;s active region. This phonon recycling or thermo-electric pumping process can be promoted by heating the LED with an external source (e.g., exhaust gases or waste heat from other electrical components). It can also be achieved via internal heat generation, e.g., by thermally insulating the LED&#39;s diode structure to prevent (rather than promote) heat dissipation. In other words, trapping heat generated by the LED within the LED increases LED efficiency under certain bias conditions.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

This application claims the priority benefit under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) ofU.S. Provisional Application No. 61/866,892, entitled“Thermo-Electrically Pumped Light-Emitting Diodes” and filed on Aug. 16,2013, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

This application is also related to U.S. application Ser. No.13/969,225, entitled “Thermo-Electrically Pumped Light-Emitting Diodes”and filed on Aug. 16, 2013, which claims the priority benefit under 35U.S.C. §119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/684,315, entitled“Photon-Recycling Light-Emitting Diode” and filed on Aug. 17, 2012. Eachof these applications is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

BACKGROUND

In theory, a light-emitting diode (LED) may emit optical power higherthan the driving electrical power, with the difference between theoptical power and electrical power drawn from lattice heat. In otherwords, an LED's wall-plug efficiency η, which is the ratio of opticaloutput power to electrical input power, that is greater than 100%. Thisphenomenon is known as electro-luminescent cooling, electro-luminescencerefrigeration, opto-thermionic cooling, the operation of a “ThermischerKonverter,” and thermo-photonic cooling.

In an electro-luminescently cooled LED, electrons and holes are firstexcited by small forward bias voltage V, which may be small enough thatqV<w, where q is the charge of an electron and w is the energy of theemitted photon. The total amount of electrical work supplied perexcitation is the product of the electron's charge q and the biasvoltage V; when qV is zero, the device is in thermodynamic equilibrium.Upon excitation, some of the electrons and holes relax by radiativerecombination and generate photons that exit the LED. The fraction ofelectrons and holes that relax by radiative recombination is defined asthe external quantum efficiency η_(EQE). If each injected electron-holepair emits a photon of energy w with an external quantum efficiencyη_(EQE) but requires just qV in work for excitation, the wall-plugefficiency η may be expressed as:

$\eta = {\frac{\hslash\omega}{qV} \cdot \eta_{EQE}}$

The observation of light emission with photon energy w in excess of theelectrical input energy per electron qV is readily accessible in LEDs ata variety of wavelengths. At these operating points, the electronpopulation is pumped by a combination of electrical work and Peltierheat originating in the semiconductor's lattice; this thermo-electricheat exchange is non-uniformly distributed throughout the device. Thisphenomenon has been experimentally observed in a SiC emitter andconnected physically to the Peltier effect. Nevertheless, net cooling,or equivalently electro-luminescence with wall-plug efficiency greaterthan unity, has eluded direct observation until recently.

Early measurements of light emission from semiconductor diodes werefollowed closely by theoretical developments. Beginning in 1957, a bodyof literature theoretically establishing the basic thermodynamicconsistency of electro-luminescent cooling and exploring its limitsbegan to emerge. In 1964, experimental results demonstrated that a GaAsdiode could produce electro-luminescence with an average photon energy3% greater than qV. Still, net cooling was not achieved due to competingnon-radiative recombination processes, which led to a conclusion that ahigh value of η_(EQE) was required for direct experimental observationof net electro-luminescent cooling.

More recently, several modeling and design efforts have aimed to raisethe external quantum efficiency η_(EQE) toward unity by maximizing thefraction of recombination that is radiative and employing photonrecycling to improve photon extraction. More recent attempts to observeelectro-luminescent cooling experimentally with a wall-plug efficiency ηnear 100% have focused on the regime in which qV is equal to at least50% of the material bandgap E_(g)≈w. As qV is lowered well below E_(g),the electron and hole populations decrease exponentially following aBoltzmann distribution with decreasing chemical potential. Since anexcited electron in a direct bandgap semiconductor may relax either byrecombining with a hole and emitting a photon, or alternatively byscattering into a state associated with a lattice imperfection andemitting phonons, small forward bias voltages qV<<E_(g) may be precludedby a requirement for high external quantum efficiency η_(EQE).

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present technology include light-emitting diodes(LEDs) and methods of operating LEDs. An exemplary LED comprises anactive region to emit infrared or visible light via radiativerecombination of electrons and holes and is configured to heat theactive region so as to thermally assist injection of at least some ofthe electrons and the holes. In operation, the LED generates heat, atleast some of which is confined within the LED to thermally assistinjection of electrons and holes into an active region of the LED. Forinstance, the LED may be configured to generate the heat via its owninefficiency (waste heat). In operation, the heat generated by the LEDmay be confined and/or concentrated within the LED to promote thethermally assist injection of electrons and holes.

In some embodiments, the LED is configured to emit the light at low bias(e.g., at a bias voltage V such that qV<

w). The active region may have a doping profile engineered to increasethe LED's quantum efficiency at low bias. For instance, the activeregion may comprise a heterojunction or a homojunction. The LED may alsoinclude a micro-structure, in thermal communication with the activeregion, to increase heat transfer to and/or photon extraction from theactive region.

It should be appreciated that all combinations of the foregoing conceptsand additional concepts discussed in greater detail below (provided suchconcepts are not mutually inconsistent) are contemplated as being partof the inventive subject matter disclosed herein. In particular, allcombinations of claimed subject matter appearing at the end of thisdisclosure are contemplated as being part of the inventive subjectmatter disclosed herein. It should also be appreciated that terminologyexplicitly employed herein that also may appear in any disclosureincorporated by reference should be accorded a meaning most consistentwith the particular concepts disclosed herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The skilled artisan will understand that the drawings primarily are forillustrative purposes and are not intended to limit the scope of theinventive subject matter described herein. The drawings are notnecessarily to scale; in some instances, various aspects of theinventive subject matter disclosed herein may be shown exaggerated orenlarged in the drawings to facilitate an understanding of differentfeatures. In the drawings, like reference characters generally refer tolike features (e.g., functionally similar and/or structurally similarelements).

FIG. 1A depicts energy and entropy flows in a Carnot-efficientthermo-electric cooler (TEC).

FIG. 1B depicts energy and entropy flows in a TEC with common sources ofirreversibility.

FIG. 1C depicts energy and entropy flows in a Carnot-efficientlight-emitting diode (LED).

FIG. 1D depicts energy and entropy flows in an LED with common sourcesof irreversibility.

FIG. 2 is a simplified band diagram depicting entropy and energy flux ina conventional LED.

FIG. 3A is a band diagram of a two-level system in equilibrium.

FIG. 3B is a band diagram of an electrically excited two-level system.

FIG. 3C is a band diagram of a thermally excited two-level system.

FIG. 4 depicts energy and entropy flows in a phonon-recycling LED.

FIG. 5 depicts photon recycling (left) and phonon recycling (right) inan LED.

FIG. 6 is a plot of temperature versus efficiency at fixed power thatillustrates stable thermal feedback loops for a thermo-electricallypumped LED.

FIG. 7 is a plot of LED output power versus LED input power for thethermodynamic and energy harvesting regimes for an LED.

FIG. 8A illustrates a mid-infrared phonon-recycling LED used fordown-hole spectroscopic analysis.

FIG. 8B is a plot of the absorption spectrum of hydrocarbon C—H bonds.

FIG. 8C is a plot of the emission spectrum of the mid-infraredphonon-recycling LED shown in FIG. 8A.

FIG. 9 illustrates a fiber-coupled phonon-recycling LED suitable foroptical communications and/or fiber-based illumination.

FIG. 10 is a plot of efficiency versus white light intensity for LEDswith different quantum efficiencies.

FIG. 11A illustrates a wide-area phonon-recycling LED suitable forambient illumination.

FIG. 11B illustrates a phonon-recycling LED with a thermally isolatedfilament.

FIG. 12 is a band diagram of a double-heterostructure LED operating atlow bias in the “heat pump” regime.

FIGS. 13A and 13B are plots of external quantum efficiency versuscurrent and bias voltage, respectively, for the LED of FIG. 12 operatingat different temperatures.

FIG. 13C is a plot of external quantum efficiency versus temperature forthe LED of FIG. 12.

FIGS. 14A and 14B are plots of wall-plug efficiency versus optical powerfor the LED of FIG. 12 operating at different temperatures.

FIGS. 15A and 15B are plots of cooling power versus current for the LEDof FIG. 12 operating at different temperatures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Conventional light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are packaged with the goal ofheat-sinking the diode as well as possible so that the junctiontemperature remains as low as possible. In doing so, the thermal energygenerated internally by non-radiative recombination, carrier leakage,photon re-absorption, and other imperfections in theelectrical-to-optical power conversion process is lost to theenvironment and does not contribute to optical output power. This istypically acceptable because these imperfections become stronger andfurther degrade performance with increasing temperature. In fact, manyprevious LEDs incorporate heat-spreading techniques that decrease thethermal resistance between the p-n junction (the active region) in theLED and the environment to keep the junction temperature from rising farabove the ambient temperature.

Contrary to the conventional wisdom, which holds that LEDs should becooled for maximum efficiency, increasing an LED's operating temperature(e.g., to about 400 K, 500 K, or 600 K) actually raises its efficiencyunder certain conditions (e.g., at low bias, when the overall wall-plugefficiency is below unity) as explained in greater detail below.Consequently, embodiments of the present disclosure include LEDs thatare configured to operate with junctions at high temperatures so as toincrease efficiency of generating incoherent electromagnetic radiation(light) from electricity. As explained in greater detail below, raisingthe LED's temperature allows thermal energy to assist the pumpingprocess internal to the LED.

More specifically, concentrating heat within the LED permits the LED torecycle excess thermal energy from non-radiative recombination to pumpthe electrons and/or holes into the LED's active area, therebyincreasing efficiency. In the high-temperature regime, the LED operatesmore efficiently with increasing temperature (e.g., at output powersbetween about 100 pW and about 10 μW). And at very low power (e.g., lessthan 100 pW), an LED may operate so efficiently that the amount ofexcess heat available to be recycled is negative, corresponding to acooling effect, in which case the LED could be used for solid-staterefrigeration.

Depending on the embodiment, an inventive LED's operating temperaturemay be elevated using an external heat source and/or via phononrecycling, also known as thermo-electric pumping. In phonon recycling,non-radiative recombination processes and internal reabsorption ofphotons produce phonons that are absorbed by the semiconductor latticeforming the LED's active region. Put differently, the filament'selectronic charge carriers may not be in equilibrium with the filament'slattice vibrations due to an applied voltage that creates a Fermi-levelseparation to drive light emission.

To exploit phonon recycling, an LED may be forward biased, e.g., at abias voltage V chosen to satisfy the inequality qV≦w, where q is thecharge of an electron and w is the energy of the emitted photon. For anLED that emits light at a wavelength of about 400 nm to about 700 nm,for example, the bias voltage may be less than about 1.7 V to about 3.1V. For an LED that emits near-infrared light (e.g., about 1300 nm toabout 1600 nm), the bias voltage may be less than about 0.77 V to about0.95 V. And for an LED that emits mid-infrared light (e.g., about 2.0 μmto about 6.5 μm), the bias voltage may be less than about 0.19 V toabout 0.62 V.

In addition, the LED should be heated to a temperature above the ambienttemperature (i.e., above the temperature of the surrounding environmentand of any surrounding electronic apparatus. In some cases, the LED maybe the hottest thing in its immediate thermal environment.

To keep the LED hotter than its surroundings, the LED may be thermallyisolated from other equipment, e.g., by increasing the thermalresistance between the LED's junction (active area) and the surroundingenvironment. This increased thermal resistance may be due to thermallyisolating/insulating packaging that concentrates the heat generatedwithin the LED. For example, an inventive LED may include anelectro-thermal filament whose wavelength-selective emission is based onthe filament's electronic structure. This filament may be surrounded byan inert gas or other insulating fluid to promote thermo-electricalpumping (phonon recycling). Alternatively, or in addition, an inventiveLED's active region may also be thermally isolated using solidinsulating material to improve the quality of the active region'sthermal isolation and high-temperature material stability so as to causethe LED to heat itself while in operation.

Although phonon recycling may limit an inventive LED's efficiency toless than 100%, good thermal isolation may make losses required tomaintain the elevated device temperature may be small compared to theoutput power. As a result, an inventive LED with good thermal isolationmay operate with a wall-plug efficiency exceeding 50%. For instance,concentrating excess heat to raise an inventive LED's filamenttemperature to 320° C. could lead to production of about 130 μW/cm² ofinfrared optical power at 50% wall-plug efficiency, which is at least100 times higher than the efficiency of conventional mid-IR sources.External heating (e.g., via exhaust or thermal dissipation from othersources) could raise the device's wall-plug efficiency above 100%.

Applications of Phonon-Recycling LEDs

The phonon-recycling LEDs disclosed herein can be used for a widevariety of applications, including those that benefit fromlow-brightness illumination or solid-state refrigeration. For instance,a phonon-recycling LED can be used to generate mid-infrared (mid-IR)light for spectroscopy applications, such as down-hole fluid analysis inoil and gas exploration and recovery. Other applications includegenerating visible light for ambient illumination, LED-based displays,optical communications, and illumination via fiber optic probes as laidout in greater detail below.

Mid-IR spectroscopy is particularly useful in the oil and gas sector,where spectroscopic systems are used to analyze fluid as it is producedfrom oil wells. For example, the Red Eye® sold by WeatherfordInternational Ltd. uses near-infrared spectroscopic data to estimate thewater-cut (i.e., the water-to-oil ratio of produced fluid) at thesurface of an oil extraction site. Several other oilfield servicescompanies also sell competing products that acquire similarspectroscopic data, both at the surface and in the high-temperatureenvironments found downhole. In fact, embodiments of the proposed lightsource may be more robust to (and may benefit from) high-temperatureenvironments.

Most commercially available spectroscopy-based analysis equipment foroil and gas exploration and production operates in the visible andnear-infrared wavelength ranges, e.g., at wavelengths of less than about2 μm. However, longer wavelength spectroscopy also provide extremelyvaluable information for characterizing new and existing oilfields. Inparticular, the detection of H₂S, which absorbs light strongly atwavelengths around 4.23 μm, could be used to determine when pressurizingfluid has leaked into the fluid being extracted during new artificiallift processes. Moreover, efficient sources in the mid-infrared couldenable the next generation of analysis equipment to characterize thedistribution of hydrocarbon lengths in real time as crude oil isproduced, with a variety of benefits for the oil extraction industry.

Examples of the efficient light sources disclosed herein could also beused in other high-temperature and power-constrained environments. Forexample, a phonon-recycling LED could be used for online monitoring ofcombustion gases at high temperatures, e.g., in exhaust stacks, car andtruck tail pipes, etc. An infrared, phonon-recycling LED could be usedin a highly power-constrained free-space communication system, such asone used to send data from spacecraft to other satellites or back toEarth. Moreover, the blackbody radiation emitted at temperature couldhide the signal emitted by the LED, enabling covert free-spacecommunications. In addition, thermo-electrically pumped LEDs may beelectrically excited to achieve photon emission on timescales fasterthan typical thermal time constants for solids of similar sizes. As aresult, the arbitrarily efficient generation of photons at low bias mayoffer a new platform to test the limits of energy-efficientelectromagnetic communication.

The LED as a Thermodynamic Machine

In statistical mechanics, the word “heat” is used to refer to any formof energy which possesses entropy. This usage applies equally to formsof energy referred to colloquially as “heat,” such as the kinetic energyin the relative motion of the molecules in a gas or the constantvibrations of atoms in a crystal lattice, as well as those for which theentropy is frequently less relevant, such as the kinetic energy in therelative motion of electrons and holes in a semiconductor or the thermalvibrations of the electromagnetic field in free space. The Laws ofThermodynamics, which govern the flow of heat, are formulatedindependently of the laws which govern the deterministic trajectories ofmechanical systems, be they classical or quantum. As a result conceptssuch as the Carnot limits for the efficiency of various energyconversion processes apply equally well to the gases and solid cylinderwalls of an internal combustion engine as to the electrons, holes, andphotons in a modern LED.

FIGS. 1A-ID illustrate energy and entropy flows in idealized and realthermo-electric coolers (TECs) and LEDs. FIG. 1A shows that, for anidealized TEC 110, entropy 10 and energy 12 flow from the TEC's coldside 114 to its hot side 112. Energy 12 also flows from an externalpower supply (wall plug 116) to the TEC's hot side 112. In a real TEC120, irreversibly generated entropy 14 flows to the hot side 122, andjoule heating and thermal conduction 16 cause energy to flow to the coldside 124 as shown in FIG. 1B.

FIGS. 1C and 1D show flows of entropy 10 and energy 12 between a photonfield 132 and a phonon field 134 in an idealized LED 130 and a real LED140, respectively, organized in the canonical picture of a thermodynamicheat pump. In FIG. 1C, entropy 10 and energy 12 from the phonon field134 to the photon field 132, with additional energy flowing from thewall plug 116 to the photon field 132. In FIG. 1D, irreversiblygenerated entropy 14 flows to the photon field 142, and non-radiativerecombination 18 contributes to the phonon field 144.

FIGS. 1A-ID show that an LED can be considered to be an electronicdevice which takes entropy-free electrical work as input and emitsincoherent light which carries entropy. Instead of irreversiblygenerating the entropy that it ejects into the photon reservoir, an LEDmay absorb it from another reservoir at finite temperature, such as thephonon bath. More specifically, an LED may absorb heat from the phononbath and deposit it into the photon field in much the same way that athermo-electric cooler (TEC) absorbs heat from its cold side anddeposits the heat on its hot side.

In the reversible limit the flows of energy and entropy are highlyanalogous for an LED and a TEC. Moreover, in both the LED and TEC, thePeltier effect is responsible for the absorption of lattice heat byelectrons and holes. Electrical work is being used to pump entropy fromone reservoir to another instead of simply creating it throughirreversible processes. Thus, an LED can be considered as athermodynamic heat pump.

An amount of heat Tδ_(S) comes with each bit of entropy δS absorbed onnet from the phonon reservoir at finite temperature. Since input andoutput power must balance in steady-state, the rate at which this heatand the input electrical work enter the system (both measured in Watts)should equal the rate at which heat is ejected into the photon reservoir(also measured in Watts). That is to say, when lattice heat is beingabsorbed on net an LED's wall-plug efficiency η (or equivalently itsheating coefficient of performance), defined as the ratio of outputoptical power to input electrical power, exceeds unity.

Reservoir Temperatures

When an LED is operating above unity efficiency, heat may be extractedcontinuously from the lattice by the electronic system. Due to the largeheat capacity of the lattice relative to the electron-hole system, thephonon field of the semiconductor diode may act very nearly as a perfectreservoir. That is to say, the other statistical subsystems thatinteract with the phonon field may deposit or withdraw any amount ofenergy ΔU from the phonon field so long as the change in energy isaccompanied by a proportional amount of entropy ΔS. The constant ofproportionality is given by the lattice temperature, yielding thefollowing equation for a perfect phonon reservoir:

ΔU=T_(lattice) δS   (1)

In some situations, the lattice may remain slightly cooled compared toits surroundings, possibly due to the large but finite heat capacity ofthe phonon bath and its large but finite thermal conductance to ambienttemperature surrounding. As a result, heat may be continuously conductedinto the LED from the environment in steady-state. Put differently, theLED may experience self-cooling rather than self-heating.

In contrast, the heat capacity of the photon field in the relevant rangeof wavelengths may not be much larger than that of the electron-holesystem. Furthermore, when the LED is emitting light, the optical fieldof the outgoing radiation modes may not be in equilibrium at ambienttemperature. Nevertheless, the optical field emitted by the LED can beanalyzed thermodynamically as follows.

Incoherent electromagnetic radiation that originates in an LED iscapable of carrying entropy, just like electromagnetic radiation from ahot blackbody. Incoherent light may therefore be considered to be a typeof heat in the statistical-mechanical sense mentioned above. The ratioof the rate at which radiation carries away energy to the rate at whichit carries away entropy gives its flux temperature:

$\begin{matrix}{T_{f} = \frac{{U}/{t}}{{S}/{t}}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

Although this notion of temperature may be used to calculate thethermodynamic limits of power-conversion efficiency, the rate of entropyflux in light can be difficult to measure directly. Fortunately, thereis a more intuitive definition of the temperature of light. Consider twobodies that are each perfectly thermally isolated from theirenvironments (e.g., by adiabatic walls) and similarly isolated from eachother. Suppose the first body has energy U₁ and entropy S₁ and likewisethe second body has energy U₂ and entropy S₂. If the insulating boundarybetween the bodies is replaced with a boundary that permits the flow ofenergy, the total energy U₁+U₂ may flow to rearrange itself in the waywhich maximizes the total entropy. The flow may stop only when theaddition of a differential amount of energy δU to either body results inthe same fractional increase in the number of available micro-states forthat body (i.e., the same increase in its entropy). Equivalently, theflow of energy stops when the bodies have equal temperature:

$\begin{matrix}{{\frac{\partial S_{1}}{\partial U_{1}}/\frac{1}{T_{1}}} = {\frac{1}{T_{2}} = \frac{\partial S_{2}}{\partial U_{2}}}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

Now consider a similar scenario in which the first body is an LED andthe second body is a perfect blackbody radiator. To begin, both bodiesare adiabatically isolated from their environments and from each other.In the case of the blackbody radiator, the walls may be a surroundingsurface made of mirrors, such that the blackbody radiator has zeroemissivity. In the case of the LED, the adiabatic walls form a cavitywith perfect reflectivity, such that each photon emitted by the LEDreflects off a mirror and returns to the LED's active region to generatea quantum of reverse-current. Assume no non-radiative recombinationoccurs. The LED is on, but is in steady-state and consumes no power.Assume that the bodies have no means of exchanging energy other thanthrough photons and that to begin the boundary between them is also aperfectly reflecting mirror.

If the wall separating the LED and the blackbody radiator is modified totransmit a small amount of light over a narrow range of wavelengthscentered at λ₀, energy may flow on net from the body with higherspectral power density (I(λ) in W m⁻² nm⁻¹ str⁻¹) to the body with lowerpower spectral density at λ₀. If the LED is perfectly incoherent, thephotons flowing in either direction may carry entropy, and therefore canbe termed ‘heat’ in the statistical mechanical sense. Since heat mayonly flow from high temperature to low temperature, the equilibriumcondition for the LED and the blackbody radiator may be satisfied whenI₁(λ₀)=I₂(λ₀). Since the relationship between intensity and temperaturefor a perfect blackbody is given by the Planck radiation law, thebrightness temperature T_(B) of an incoherent source can be defined asthe temperature of a blackbody radiator whose spectral intensity equalsthat of the emitter at the wavelength and emission direction ofinterest:

$\begin{matrix}{{I_{emitter}\left( \lambda_{0} \right)} = {{I_{blackbody}\left( {\lambda_{0;}T_{B}} \right)} = {\frac{4{\hslash\pi}^{2}c^{2}}{\lambda_{0}^{5}}\left\{ {{\exp \left\lbrack \frac{\hslash \left( {2f\; \pi \; {c/\lambda_{0}}} \right)}{k_{B}T_{B}} \right\rbrack} - 1} \right\}^{- 1}}}} & (4)\end{matrix}$

Unlike the color temperature of radiation commonly used in the lightingand display spaces, a longer-wavelength emitter is not necessarilycooler than a short-wavelength emitter. The linewidth, angular extent,wavelength, and intensity of the source may affect the source'stemperature. matter For instance, variations in these factors may resultin thermodynamically cold emission from a blue LED or thermodynamicallyhot emission from a red LED. That is to say, a source may have arelatively cool flux photon temperature T_(F) and a cool brightnessphoton temperature T_(B) even when emitting blue light. For moreinformation on the distinction between the flux and brightness photontemperatures, see, e.g., M. A. Weinstein, “Thermodynamic limitation onthe conversion of heat into light,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. 50, 597-602 (1960).

Since the temperature of an incoherent photon flux is essentially ameasure of its power spectral intensity, the Second Law ofThermodynamics places a different efficiency constraint on emitters ofdifferent spectral intensity. As a function of lattice temperature andemitter intensity, the Carnot limit may be expressed compactly asfollows:

$\begin{matrix}{{\eta \leq \eta_{Carnot}} = \frac{T_{photon}(I)}{{T_{photon}(I)} - T_{lattice}}} & (5)\end{matrix}$

For bright sources (e.g., l(λ)>>I_(blackbody) (λ; T_(lattice)), the LEDpumps heat against the large temperature difference between the latticeand the outgoing photon field. This results in a maximum efficiency,even for a perfect Carnot-efficient LED, which exceeds unity but onlyslightly. For dim sources (e.g., I(λ)−I_(blackbody) (λ;T_(lattice))<<I_(blackbody) (λ; T_(lattice))), the LED must only pumpheat against a small temperature difference. As a result, efficienciesfar in excess of unity are possible.

Examining an LED's behavior at fixed spectral intensity reveals anothercounter-intuitive aspect of the heat-pump regime. As the latticetemperature increases, the temperature difference against which the LEDmust pump becomes smaller, and the maximum allowable efficiencyincreases. Thus, the basic thermal physics of an LED in the heat pumpregime is the reverse of the conventional thermal physics: above-unityefficiency results in self-cooling that decreases the device's operatingtemperature. For a desired spectral intensity, a higher latticetemperature means that the device can be more efficient. Thesedifferences may result in practical consequences for both thedevice-level design of LEDs and the thermal design of their packaging.

Electrons as the Working Fluid

FIG. 2 is a diagram, based on the Peltier effect, that illustratesentropy flow among a photon field 202, an electronic system 204, and aphonon field 206 of a conventional double hetero junction LED 200. Thephoton field 202, electronic system 204, and phonon field 206 each actas energy and entropy reservoirs, with arrows indicating energy andentropy flow among the reservoirs. Per convention, “+” signs indicateholes, and “−” signs indicate electrons. The upper and lower dashedlines indicate the Fermi levels for the electrons and holes,respectively, and the upper and lower solid lines indicate theconduction and valence bands, respectively, as in a conventional banddiagram.

For simplicity, consider the processes of carrier injection andrecombination separately. When electrons flow from a metal contact 210 ainto a lightly n-doped semiconductor 220 a, the average energy of thecarriers involved in conduction increases from around the Fermi level toan energy above it. This increase in energy is supplied by lattice heat(phonon field 206) in steady state through the Peltier effect.Generalizing this principle and applying it to a conventional doublehetero junction LED suggests that as electrons flow from the negativecontact 210 a towards a typical recombination site in the active region,lattice heat is absorbed as the electron energy increases. Likewise, asholes enter the LED's p-doped semiconductor region 220 b from a positivemetal contact 210 b and diffuse toward the recombination site, they toodraw energy from the semiconductor lattice. Since the semiconductorlattice is a thermodynamic reservoir, this energy also has entropyassociated with it. Thus, in forward bias, during injection the carriersabsorb entropy and energy from the lattice with a flux proportional tothe slope of the relevant band edge.

Similarly, recombination of the holes and carriers results in the flowof energy and entropy from the electron-hole system 204 to the photonfield 204 and phonon field 206. Although recombination and generationevents take place continually even when there is no current, the netrecombination determines these flows.

As with the majority carriers in the doped regions, even when the deviceis off, the electrons and holes in the active region are perpetuallyexperiencing generation and recombination as the result of theirinteraction with other reservoirs. These processes can be thought of interms of the following stoichiometric equation:

e⁻+h⁺

U_(bandgap)   (6)

where e⁻ is an electron, h⁺ is a hole, and U_(bandgap) denotes someexcitation with energy (and other conserved quantities) equal to that ofthe electron-hole pair. As with a typical chemical reaction, thereactants and products are in equilibrium at some concentrations. Whencarriers are injected into the active region by a forward bias voltage,the concentration of electrons n and holes p exceeds these values (i.e.,when np exceeds the squared intrinsic carrier concentration n_(i) ²).Net recombination occurs, and the reaction is driven from left to right.

Each time that an electron-hole pair is annihilated, both energy andentropy are removed from the electron and hole gases. That is to say,annihilation reduces the number of microscopic configurations in whichthe conduction and valence bands can be occupied. However, this entropycannot disappear entirely as doing so would violate the Second Law ofThermodynamics. Instead, the entropy removed from the electronicsub-system (the degrees of freedom from excitations of the conductionand valence band states) is transported to another sub-system at thesame location in the LED 200. The entropy's destination depends on thedestination of the electron-hole pair's energy. As seen in FIG. 2, fornon-radiative recombination, the destination is the lattice (phononfield 206). For radiative recombination, the destination is the photonfield 202.

Now consider just the flows of entropy and energy between the photonfield 202, electronic system 204, and phonon field 206 shown in FIG. 2without the internal dynamics of the electronic system 204. For eachquantum of charge that flows through the LED 204, one net recombinationevent occurs. The amount of entropy that enters and leaves the photonfield 202 and the phonon field 206 can be determined from knowledge ofthe energy flows among the photon field 202, electronic system 204, andphonon field 206 combined with Equations (1) and (2). However, becausethe electronic sub-system 204 is not in equilibrium at any fixedtemperature, it must be examined more closely.

The electronic sub-system 204 can be modeled as a two-level system underdifferent excitation conditions. This model represents the electronicdegrees of freedom at a single point in space, where f_(c) is theoccupancy probability for the higher energy state, f_(v) is theoccupancy probability of the lower state, and the states are separatedby an energy ΔE. In terms of these quantities, the system's total energyand entropy are:

U=f _(c) +ΔE+U ₀   (7)

S=−k _(B)[(f _(c) ln f _(c)+(1+f _(c))ln(1−f _(c)))+(f _(c)

f _(v))]  (8)

where U₀ is a constant. Defining a degree of freedom corresponding toexcitation from the lower state to the upper state makes it possible tofind the amount of entropy change in the system per unit energy changefor distortions of this type. This ratio can be expressed as the inversetemperature T¹ of the electronic system:

$\begin{matrix}{T^{1} = {\frac{\partial S}{\partial U} = \frac{\frac{S}{f_{c}} - \frac{S}{f_{v}}}{\frac{U}{f_{c}} - \frac{U}{f_{v}}}}} & (9) \\\begin{matrix}{\frac{S}{f_{c}} = {- {k_{B}\left\lbrack {{\ln \; f_{c}} + 1 - {\ln \left( {1 - f_{c}} \right)} - 1} \right\rbrack}}} \\{= {{- k_{B}}{\ln \left( \frac{f_{c}}{1 - f_{c}} \right)}(11)}}\end{matrix} & (10) \\{T^{1} = {\frac{\partial S}{\partial U} = {\frac{{{- k_{B}}{\ln \left( \frac{f_{c}}{1 - f_{c}} \right)}} + {k_{B}{\ln \left( \frac{f_{v}}{1 - f_{v}} \right)}}}{\Delta \; E}.}}} & (12)\end{matrix}$

Constraining the probability for occupancy of either state f_(c)+f_(y)to be 1 so that the Fermi level E_(F) falls halfway between the statesin energy, the equation above can be rearranged to recover theexpression for Fermi-Dirac occupancy in equilibrium at temperature T:

$\begin{matrix}{{\exp \left( \frac{\Delta \; E}{k_{B}T} \right)} = {{\frac{f_{v}}{1 - f_{v}} \cdot \frac{1 - f_{c}}{f_{c}}} = \left( \frac{1 - f_{c}}{f_{c}} \right)^{2}}} & (13) \\{{\exp \left( \frac{\Delta \; {E/2}}{k_{B}T} \right)} = \left( {\frac{1}{f_{c}} - 1} \right)} & (14) \\{f_{c} = \left( {{\exp \left( \frac{E_{{upper}\text{-}{state}} - E_{F}}{k_{B}T} \right)} + 1} \right)^{- 1}} & (15)\end{matrix}$

The preceding result shows that inverse temperature of a Fermionicsystem, meaning the amount of entropy added to the system when a unit ofenergy is added, can be calculated from the occupation of the states.That is to say, two situations which are described differently have thesame temperature if their occupancies are the same.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C illustrate a two-level system that exhibitsdifferent types of excitations. They show that excitations which lead tothe same occupation of states have the same effective temperature T*.This two-level system represents an ensemble of homogeneous quantumdots, each with one low-energy electron state and one high-energy stateas before, but each also possessing a lattice with temperatureT_(lattice). The total charge between the states is taken to bef_(c)+f_(v)=1 to ensure charge neutrality. If the lattice temperatureT_(lattice) is kept at 300 K and no electrical excitation is applied,the statistical two-level system has a Fermi level at exactly halfwaybetween the two states and the occupancies f_(c) and f_(v) can bedetermined by the Fermi-Dirac distribution as shown in FIG. 3A. In otherwords, in FIG. 3A, the electronic system is in equilibrium with alattice whose temperature of 300 K.

Since a recombination event removes an electron from a higher energystate and places it in a lower energy state (and vice versa for ageneration event), consider the degree of freedom corresponding tof_(c)→f_(c)+δf and f_(v)→f_(v)−δf. This degree of freedom corresponds toexcitations that retain charge neutrality.

FIGS. 3B and 3C show two different types of excitations that result inthe same values of f_(c) and f_(v). In FIG. 3B, the electrical systemhas been taken out of equilibrium with the lattice by an applied voltageqV=ΔE/2. More specifically, a Fermi-level separation has increased theoccupancy of the higher-energy state and decreased the occupancy of thelower-energy state. Although the lattice temperature in FIG. 3B is still300 K, the system's effective temperature T*, which indicates the ratioof entropy to energy in the electronic system, is 600 K. In FIG. 3C, theelectronic system is again in equilibrium with the lattice, but thelattice is heated at 600 K. Although the excitation sources in FIGS. 3Band 3C are different, the occupancies f_(c) and f_(v) are identical, sothe effective temperature T* is the same in both cases.

To see how the effective temperature T* relates to occupancy, considerthe energy different between each state and its quasi-Fermi level. Inboth FIGS. 3B and 3C, the energy difference (number of k_(B)T's, wherek_(B) is Boltzmann's constant and T is the device temperature) betweeneach state and its quasi-Fermi level has been halved. Consequently theFermi-Dirac occupation of the states in both situations is equal (i.e.,f_(c) and f_(v) are the same in both). Since the total entropy S andenergy U of the electron-hole system are determined entirely by f_(c)and f_(v), these quantities are also equal. As a result, the effectivetemperature T*=(∂S/∂U)⁻¹ with which the electron-hole system interactsthrough inter-band processes is also the same for the electrical (FIG.3B) and thermal (FIG. 3C) excitation conditions.

From these examples, the effective temperature T* in a semiconductorwhose quasi-Fermi levels are separated by an energy ΔE_(F) in a regionwith bandgap energy E_(gap) can be expressed as:

$\begin{matrix}{T^{*} \equiv {T_{lattice}\left( {1 - \frac{\Delta \; E_{F}}{E_{gap}}} \right)}^{- 1}} & (16)\end{matrix}$

This expression can be used to simplify the internal dynamics of theelectronic system into a simple thermodynamic model. For inter-bandprocesses in which the electronic system loses energy to anotherreservoir (e.g., via recombination), the corresponding loss of entropyis determined by T* from Equation (16). By contrast, for the intra-bandelectron-phonon scattering processes that comprise thermally assistedinjection, the amount of entropy exchanged during an energy exchange isgiven by T_(lattice).

Modifying FIG. 2 by consolidating all flows of entropy together andincluding the corresponding flows of energy from the various sourcesyields the canonical diagram for a thermodynamic heat pump shown inFIGS. 1C and 1D. As electrons and holes are injected into the activeregion, they absorb heat from the phonons at T_(lattice). When theelectrons and holes undergo radiative recombination in the LED's activeregion, they deposit the absorbed heat into the photon field attemperature T*>T_(lattice). Thus the electrons and holes act as aworking fluid in a heat pump operating between these two temperatures.Additionally, in the optically thick limit (i.e., when light rays travelmany absorption lengths as they pass through the active region), theactive region radiates like a blackbody with unity emissivity, so thatT_(photon)=T*. Finally, in this case of only radiative recombination,since no irreversible processes are taking place, the heat pump can beCarnot efficient.

Phonon-Recycling LEDs

FIG. 4 illustrates entropy and energy flows in an LED 400 operating as aphonon-recycling heat pump. As in FIGS. 1C and 1D, entropy 10 and energy12 flow from a phonon field (lattice) 404 to a photon field 402. As in aconventional LED, the phonon-recycling LED 400 emits photons 40 from thephoton field 402 into the environment (“to ambient”). In this case,however, the LED 400 also emits phonons 42, some of which propagate intothe environment, and some of which are recycling back into the LED 400via the phonon field 404. Recycling phonons 42 confines and concentratesheat within the LED 400, raising the LED's temperature (and hence thetemperature of the lattice (phonon field 404)). Emitting phonons 42 intoa high-temperature reservoir, such as the phonon field 404, also reducesthe amount of entropy generated by the LED. For example, at 300 K, each26 meV phonon carries away 1 k_(B) of entropy, whereas at 900 K, each 26meV phonon carries away (⅓) k_(B) of entropy. Thus, concentrating heatchokes off entropy generation, thereby increasing the LED's efficiency.

FIG. 5 illustrates differences between photon recycling (left) andphonon recycling (right) in an LED. In a photon recycling, photons areabsorbed in the active region (intrinsic region of a PIN diode) toproduce additional electron-hole pairs. In phonon recycling, phonons areabsorbed throughout the PIN diode, including within the active region.This raises the temperature of the PIN diode's semiconductor lattice,promoting thermally assisted injection of electrons and holes into theactive region.

FIG. 6 is a plot of LED output power versus LED output power thatillustrate operation in the energy harvesting regime and thethermodynamic regime at different operating temperatures. The dasheddiagonal line illustrates the “crossover”—100% electrical-to-opticalconversion, or unity wall-plug efficiency—between the energy harvestingregime and the thermodynamic regime.

FIG. 7 is a plot of wall-plug efficiency η at fixed input power versusLED temperature for an LED that is perfectly thermally isolated from itssurroundings. FIG. 7 also shows a pair of feedback loops that act tokeep the LED in stable equilibrium at 100% wall-plug efficiency.Consider, for example, a perturbation that causes the LED to heat up isin the right-hand feedback loop. The increase in LED temperature causesthe LED's efficiency to rise along the curve plotted in FIG. 7, which inturn causes electro-luminescent cooling. Cooling reduces the LED'stemperature, so the LED returns to its equilibrium point. Similarly, aperturbation that causes the LED to drop in temperature produces acorresponding decrease in efficiency, which in turn causes the LED toheat up and increase in efficiency as in the left-hand feedback loop.

If heat leaks out of the system (i.e., if the system is not perfectlythermally isolated), however, then the LED may not remain in stableequilibrium at 100% wall-plug efficiency. Nevertheless, the LED shouldcontinue to exhibit the stable feedback behavior despite energy loss. Infact, the overall efficiency at the stable feedback point, η_(s), can bedetermined from the quality of heat confinementK_(total)=K_(radiation)+K_(parasitic), where K_(radiation) includes theelectrical enhancement to blackbody radiation; the spectral efficiencyof the radiation S=P_(rad,useful)=P_(rad,total); and the externalquantum efficiency, η_(EQE), at the relevant bias voltage(s). The stableoperating point is analogous to the unity efficiency operating point(where electro-luminescent cooling is seen) in externally heatedlow-bias LEDs, except that the heat is continuously supplied by thedevice's own inefficiency. The limit(s) on brightness at a givenefficiency may be set by the temperatures at which the materials in useexperience degradation.

Thermo-Electrically Cooled LEDs for Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy

FIG. 8A shows a mid-infrared (mid-IR) spectroscopy system 800 suitablefor down-hole spectroscopy, combustion exhaust analysis, and othersimilar applications. The system 800 includes a phonon-recycling LED 810that transmits mid-IR light through a fluidic analyte 80, such as fluidproduced from an oil well, to a photodetector 860, which generates aphotocurrent whose amplitude represents the intensity of the transmittedlight. A processor (not shown) coupled to the photodetector 860 mayprocess this photocurrent to detect the presence or absence of H₂S,hydrocarbons (C—H bonds), and/or other substances in the fluidic analyte80.

The LED 810 comprises a thin-film semiconductor diode structure(including an active region) 812 made of a semiconductor material (e.g.,GaSb, InAs) selected to emit light at a mid-IR wavelength (e.g., 2-7microns, 3-4 microns, around 3.5 microns, around 4.23 microns, etc.)with relatively high quantum efficiency (e.g., 70%, 75%, 80%, 85%, 90%,95%, etc.). The diode structure 812 may configured for low-biasoperation, e.g., at a bias voltage of less than about 0.19 V to about0.62 V for mid-IR emission (e.g., less than about 0.60 V, 0.55 V, 0.50V, 0.45 V, 0.40 V, 0.35 V, 0.30 V, 0.25 V, 0.20 V, 0.15 V, 0.10 V, or0.05 V). In some cases, the diode structure 812 may be doped to raisethe low-bias external quantum efficiency η_(EQE) and therefore theoptical power density available without net heat generation. The diodestructure 812 may also include or be in thermal and/or opticalcommunication with a microstructure that increases heat transfer toand/or photon extraction from the active region. Moreover, reducing theratio E_(gap)/k_(B)T may produce further increases in power density.

FIG. 8A shows that the diode structure 812 is mounted on a transparentthermal insulator 814, which in turn is mounted or affixed to areflector 816. Conductive wires (electrical leads) 820 a and 820 bextend from electrical contacts on either side of the diode structure'sactive region. And a reflective collimating element 818, such as aWinston cone (an off-axis parabola of revolution), extends around theLED 810 along an axis orthogonal to the predominant flow direction of afluidic analyte 80, which may be a fluid stream or jet.

In operation, the wires 820 a and 820 b conduct current through thediode structure 812 so as to cause the diode structure 812 to emitmid-infrared light. Some of this light propagates directly through thefluidic analyte 80; some light reflects off the reflective collimatingelement 818, which redirects the reflected light so as to form acollimated beam propagating towards the fluidic analyte 80; and somelight may propagate towards transparent thermal insulator 814. Thetransparent thermal insulator 814, in turn, transmits some of this lightto the reflector 816, which reflects incident light back towards thefluidic analyte 80, possibly via the reflective collimating element 818.

Depending on its composition, the fluidic analyte 80 may absorb some orall of the incident mid-IR light. For example, if the fluidic analyte 80comprises a compound with hydrocarbon C—H bonds, its absorption spectrummay resemble the transmittance versus wavelength plot shown in FIG. 8B,with nearly 80% absorption at a wavelength of about 3.4 μm. And if theLED's emission spectrum is as shown in FIG. 8C, with an emission peak atabout 3.5 tm with a full-width half-maximum of about 0.5 μm, then thefluidic analyte 80 may strongly absorb the light emitted by the LED 810.If the fluidic analyte 80 does not absorb the light emitted by the LED810, e.g., because it does not have any (or many) hydrocarbon C—H bonds,then it may transmit some or all of the light emitted by the LED 810.

A second Winston cone 822 focuses the light transmitted by the fluidicanalyte 80 onto a mid-IR photodetector, which produces a photocurrent orother signal representative of the irradiance of the detected light. Ifthe fluidic analyte 80 absorbs light strongly, then the photocurrent maybe low; otherwise, the photocurrent may be high. A processor (not shown)operably coupled to the photodetector 824 may sense the photocurrent andprovide an indication of the presence or absence of a particularcompound (e.g., a hydrocarbon) based on the photocurrent's amplitude.For example, the processor may use the photocurrent to determine agas/oil ratio (GOR) of the fluidic analyte 80 or to analyze thecomposition of combustion exhaust.

Unlike in a conventional LED, which may include a heat sink to dissipateheat generated by the active region, the transparent thermal insulator814 thermally isolates the diode structure 812, causing heat generatedby the diode structure 812 to remain confined to the diode structure812. In some cases, the insulator 814 may be configured to concentratethis recycled heat to a certain portion of the diode structure 812. Bypreventing heat from flowing out of the diode structure 812, theinsulator 814 causes the diode structure 812 to heat up duringoperation. Increasing the diode structure's temperature promotesthermally assisted injection of holes and electrons into the active(intrinsic) region of the diode structure 812 as described above. Due tothis thermally assisted injection, the LED 810 may operate with awall-plug efficiency of over 100%, which is several orders of magnitudehigher than the 0.1% to 1.0% wall-plug efficiencies of conventionalmid-IR LEDs.

In addition, unlike a conventional LED, the mid-IR LED 800 does notnecessarily have to be cooled when operated in a high-temperatureenvironment, such as in the exhaust stack of a combustion engine. Insome embodiments, the LED 800 may be configured to absorb heat, furtherincreasing efficiency as well as potentially easing constraints onoperating temperature and LED cooling. Conversely, conventional mid-IRLEDs tend to operate less efficiently with increasing temperature.

In some respects, the LED 810 shown in FIG. 8A is a hybrid device whosemechanical design resembles that of a thermal source (blackbodyradiator) and whose electronic design resembles that of a conventionalLED. Because the LED 810 resembles both a thermal source and aconventional LED, it operates at relatively high efficiency (e.g.,greater than 50% efficiency) and the intensity of its emission can bemodulated rapidly. As a result, it can outperform both thermal emittersand conventional LEDs in infrared spectroscopy.

Thermo-Electrically Cooled LEDs for Optical Communication

FIG. 9 illustrates a thermo-electrically cooled LED 910 at one end of anoptical fiber 930 for use in an optical communications system orfiber-optic illumination system. The LED 910 includes a thin-filmsemiconductor diode structure (e.g., a homojunction or heterojunctiondiode) 912 that is optically coupled to a cleaved facet 938 at one ofthe fiber 930. In some embodiments, the diode structure 912 (also knownas an active region) is bonded (e.g., using epoxy) or otherwise affixedto the fiber 930. A conductive wire 920 provides an electricalconnection between the diode structure 912 and a current source 922 usedto power the LED 910. The LED 910 may be configured to operate at lowbias (e.g., at a bias voltage corresponding to an energy below thephoton energy). For instance, the bias voltage may be less than about0.70 V to about 1.0 V (e.g., less than about 0.90 V, 0.80 V, 0.70 V,0.60 V, 0.50 V, 0.40 V, and so on) for operation in the telecom bands at1310 nm and/or 1550 nm.

In operation, electrons and holes recombine in the LED's active area(not shown) to produce near-infrared light (e.g., at about 1310 nm orabout 1550 nm) for optical communications or visible light forfiber-optic illumination. At least some of the light emitted by the LED910 enters the fiber's core 934, which is surround by a cladding 936(and possibly one or more buffer layers (not shown)). Depending on thedifferences in refractive indices of the core 934 and cladding 936, thecore diameter, and the wavelength of light emitted by the LED 910, thefiber 930 may guide light in a single transverse mode or multipletransverse modes. Modulating the intensity of the light emitted by theLED 910, e.g., with a signal source (not shown) coupled to the currentsource 922, produces an optical signal that can be detected with adetector (not shown) optically coupled to the far end of the fiber 930.As well understood by those of skill in the art, the LED 910 can bemodulated according to any suitable modulation scheme over bandwidths ofup to 1 GHz (e.g., 100 MHz, 250 MHz, 500 MHz, and so on).

FIG. 9 also shows that the LED 910 is not heat sunk. As a result, theLED 910 tends to heat up during operation, which in turn causes theLED's wall-plug efficiency to increase. For example, the LED 910 maybecome hotter than the current source 922 during operation. Indeed,waste heat from the current source 922 could be used to heat the LED910.

Thermo-Electrically Cooled LEDs for Illumination

FIG. 10 is a plot of wall-plug efficiency versus white light intensity.The horizontal dashed line indicates 100% wall-plug efficiency, thedotted line with squares indicates the minimum quantum efficiency toachieve 100% wall-plug efficiency, and the solid line with circlesindicates the Carnot efficiency limit. Typically, indoor lighting has anintensity of about 0.1 W/m² to about 10 W/m², whereas a high-power LEDdie may operate with an intensity of about 10⁶ W/m². By comparison,phototopic vision in an average human begins at intensities of about10⁻⁶ W/m².

FIG. 10 shows that the minimum quantum efficiency η_(Q) (dotted linewith squares) for a semiconductor material used in a unity-efficiency,phonon-recycling LED for indoor lighting is about 75%. As understood bythose of skill in the art, the material quantum efficiency can bealtered (and possibly increased) by doping the material, varying thedoping profile, minimizing defects, or changing its structure (e.g., toform quantum dots, periodic structures, homojunctions, heterojunctions,etc.). For instance, the LED's micro-structure may be engineered toimprove heat transfer and photon extraction.

FIGS. 11A and 11B illustrate phonon-recycling LEDs for low-brightnessillumination, ambient illumination, displays, etc. FIG. 11A shows a LEDlighting panel 1000 suitable for providing wide-area illumination. TheLED lighting panel 1000 includes one or more large-area semiconductordiodes (active regions) 1012, each of which is coated on one side with areflective back contact 1020 and on the other side by a transparentfront contact 1022 (e.g., made of indium tin oxide or any other suitablematerial). If desired, the diode structure(s) 1012 can be coated orencased in a transparent encapsulant 1016 that protects thelight-emitting surface(s) of the semiconductor diode(s) 1012 fromscratches and nicks and textured to form an optional textured emittingsurface 1018 that scatters or diffuse light emitted by the diodestructure(s) 1012.

Unlike in conventional LEDs, which are usually mounted on heat sinks todissipate internally generated heat, the diode structure 1012 is mountedon a thermally insulating substrate 1014. For instance, thesemiconductor diode(s) 1012 can be made using any suitable technique,including epitaxial lift-off, in which case one or more diode structures1012 are grown epitaxially on a sacrificial substrate, then removed fromthe substrate and mounted or affixed to a high-temperature, thermallyinsulating substrate 1014 (e.g., an oxide- or polymer-based substrate).

In operation, the LED lighting panel 1000 is biased at low bias. Theexact bias voltage V depends on the emission wavelength, and can bechosen such that qV<w. For visible light emission, the bias voltage maybe less than about 1.75 V to about 3.25 V (e.g., less than about 3.2 V,3.1 V, 3.0 V, 2.9 V, 2.8 V, 2.7 V, 2.6 V, 2.5 V, 2.4 V, 2.3 V, 2.2 V,2.1 V, 2.0 V, 1.9 V, 1.8 V, 1.7 V, 1.6 V, 1.5 V, 1.4 V, and so on). Whenthe LED lighting panel 1000 is on, the diode structure 1012 generatesexcess heat, and the thermally insulating substrate 1014 traps asubstantial amount of this heat in the diode structure 1012. By trapping(rather than dissipating) heat in the diode structure 1012, thethermally insulating substrate 1014 increases the LED lighting panel'sefficiency as explained above.

FIG. 11B shows a phonon-recycling LED light bulb 1100. Like aconventional light bulb, the LED light bulb 110 includes a “filament”—inthis case, a multi-phase LED load 1112—suspended in a thermallyinsulating gas-filled bulb 1116. The multi-phase LED load 1112 is biasedat low bias, e.g., at any value less than about 1.75 V to less thanabout 3.25 V for visible light emission. Applying an alternating currentto a primary coil 1122 at the base of the LED light bulb 1100 induces acurrent in a secondary coil 1120 coupled to a power conditioning unit1114, which applies a conditioned version of the induced current to themulti-phase LED load (active region) 1112. The current causes the LEDload 1122 to emit light and generate heat. Because the LED load 1122 ismounted within a thermally insulating gas-filled bulb 1116, however, theheat that it generates cannot dissipate easily. Instead, the heatremains confined within the LED load 1122 to raise the LED load'soperating temperature.

Exemplification

The following example is intended to illustrate aspects of the presentdisclosure without limiting the appended claims.

As explained above, the presence of entropy in incoherentelectromagnetic radiation permits semiconductor light-emitting diodes(LEDs) to emit more optical power than they consume in electrical power,with the remainder drawn from lattice heat. The experimental results inFIGS. 13-15 show electro-luminescence, in a conventional LED(illustrated in FIG. 12), in which the ratio of detected optical powerto supplied electrical power, known commonly as the wall-plug efficiencyη (or as the heating coefficient of performance), exceeds unity. Theseexperimental results illustrate the potential of phonon-recycling toincrease efficiency in both LED lighting and solid-state cooling.

The experimental results shown in FIGS. 13-15 were achieved by exploringa regime where the active region carrier concentrations n and p did notalways exceed the intrinsic concentration n_(i). The forward biasapplied to the LED was about V=70 μV, so that qV was several hundredtimes smaller than k_(B)T. At bias voltages V<k_(B)T/q, sometimesreferred to as the low-bias regime, quantum efficiency η_(EQE) becamevoltage-independent. Despite quantum efficiencies as low asη_(EQE)≈3×10⁻⁴, the results show both net electro-luminescent coolingand wall-plug efficiency η (the ratio of collected light power to inputelectrical power) that exceeded 200%. Further reductions in the biasvoltage led to further increases in the wall-plug efficiency η. Inaddition, moving to LED materials with narrower bandgaps (smallerE_(gap)) and raising the emitter lattice temperature increased the poweravailable in the low-bias regime by several orders of magnitude.

FIG. 12 is a band diagram of the double hetero junction LED used toproduce the experimental results described here at a forward bias of 26mV. Peltier cooling occurred at the contacts on either end of the LEDand at the intrinsic GaInAsSb active region in the middle of the LED.Applying a small forward bias (e.g., the 26 mV shown in FIG. 12) causedthe LED to act as a heat pump: it drew energy from the lattice to injectelectrons and holes from the n- and p-doped GaSb regions, respectively,into the active region. The injection process drove both radiativerecombination, which caused light emission, and non-radiativerecombination, which promoted thermally assisted injection of electronsand holes. At low bias, these processes resulted in a small butmeasurable forward current and net outgoing photon flux.

During the experiments, the LED was heated to temperatures ranging from25° C. to 135° C. When the LED was heated to 135° C., it emitted lightat a center wavelength of about 2.42 μm with a full-width half maximumof about 0.29 μm as well as up to about 40 nW of blackbody radiation.Below optical output powers of approximately 1 μW, the optical outputpower was measured using a lock-in technique. The LED was placedelectrically in series with an unheated resistor and the combined loadwas biased with a 1 kHz on-off voltage square wave. This resistordominated the load across the function generator so that the LED wasapproximately current biased. The optical power was detected by along-wavelength InGaAs p-i-n photo-diode whose photo-current signal wasamplified and measured by a trans-impedance amplifier connected to adigital lock-in amplifier. The phase of the optical power signalremained fixed as the excitation voltage was reduced, indicating thateven at low power the measured signal was the result of LEDelectro-luminescence. The uncertainties presented result primarily frombackground electrical noise in the lock-in measurement of optical power.This noise was observed to be zero-mean, with no preferential phaserelationship to the excitation signal. The phase of the optical powersignal remained fixed as the excitation voltage was reduced. Above 100nW, an overlapping power measurement was made using a DC voltage sourceand digital multimeter. The lock-in optical power measurements agreedwith the DC measurements to within the experimental uncertainty.

The curve fits (lines) shown alongside the experimental data in FIGS.13-15 were produced using a one-dimensional simulation of the firstthree moments of the Boltzmann Transport Equation, a lattice heatdiffusion equation, and an optical transmission calculation. The carriertransport equations were solved self-consistently with the lattice heatdiffusion equation using a commercial software package. Therecombination mechanisms in the carrier transport model were bulktrap-based Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination, surface SRHrecombination at the hetero-interfaces, radiative bimolecularrecombination, Auger recombination, and surface recombination at thecontacts. The optical transmission calculation was used to correct forthe effects of photon recycling and changes in extraction at high bias.The simulation included three fitting parameters: a series contactresistance of 0.779 Ω, a non-radiative bulk SRH lifetime at 300 K of 95ns, and a collection efficiency of 24.5% used in the simulation. Thiscollection efficiency indicates that the experimentally measured 231%wall-plug efficiency corresponds to a simulated internal wall-plugefficiency of 943%.

FIGS. 13A and 13B are plots of the quantum efficiency η_(1EQE) versuscurrent and voltage, respectively, in the low bias regime. Markersrepresent measurements at operating temperatures of 25° C., 84° C., and135° C., and lines indicate the corresponding simulations. The plotsshow that the quantum efficiency is independent of current and voltageat sufficiently low bias. Without being bound by any particular theory,bias voltages of V<<k_(B)T/q constitute a small deviation fromthermodynamic equilibrium and drive net photon generation as a linearresponse in much the same way as a small excess of reactants drives achemical reaction. Applying a forward bias raises the steady-stateconcentration of electrons n₀ and holes p₀ by δn and δp, respectively.The total radiative recombination rate is proportional to the productnp, where n=n₀+δn and p=p₀+δp. Since recombination balances generationat equilibrium, the cross-terms of this product give the netrecombination rate to leading order in the deviations δn and δp. Sincenet light emission is linearly proportional to δn and δp, and δn and δpare linear in V, at low bias an LED's quantum efficiency is finite,including as V approaches zero.

FIG. 13C is a plot of the external quantum efficiency η_(EQE) (leftaxis) and zero-bias resistance R_(ZB) (right axis) versus temperature.Again without being bound by any particular theory, the external quantumefficiency η_(EQE) is often small at low bias because non-radiative SRHrecombination associated with defect trap states dominates in thepresence of defects in the semiconductor lattice. Trap states competewith equilibrium holes for the capture of excess electrons, and withequilibrium electrons for the capture of excess holes. Since theequilibrium carrier densities rise rapidly with temperature while thetrap density does not, low-bias η_(EQE) also rises with temperature, asshown in FIG. 13C. In this experiment a 24% increase in the absolutetemperature resulted in a 10-fold rise in low-bias η_(EQE).

FIGS. 14A and 14B are plots of the LED's wall-plug efficiency versusoptical output power at low bias for different operating temperaturesand different ranges of output optical power. The dashed line in FIG.14B indicates 100% wall-plug efficiency. FIGS. 14A and 14B show that thewall-plug efficiency varies inversely with optical output power at lowbias. The external quantum efficiency η_(EQE) is voltage-independent andthe I-V characteristic is linear through the origin, as in the low-biasregime. FIGS. 14A and 14B also show that this behavior continues beyondthe point of unity wall-plug efficiency, indicating netelectro-luminescent cooling. Unlike strategies for cooling which workonly above some minimum junction voltage, operating at low-bias maypermit unbounded wall-plug efficiency at infinitesimal power. Theexistence of such a low-bias regime is a general, material-independentphysical property of LEDs, which suggests that existing LEDs could beoperated at low bias and thermally pumped to increase wall-plugefficiency.

FIGS. 15A and 15B are plots of the LED's net cooling power P_(cool)versus current for different temperatures. The dashed horizontal linesrepresent 100% wall-plug efficiency. Although the Peltier heat exchangeof the injection process is highly non-uniform, on average the deviceremained very slightly cooled so that in steady-state the thermal energythat pumped the emitter flowed in from the ambient environment. The netcooling power, P_(cool), is given by the difference between the emittedoptical power and the input electrical power. In terms of the zero-biasresistance R and the current through the device I, the net cooling poweris given by:

$\begin{matrix}{P_{cool} = {{I\left( {\frac{h\; \omega}{q} \cdot n_{EQE}} \right)} - {I^{2}{R.}}}} & (17)\end{matrix}$

The bias resistance R is not indicative of a purely irreversible processas in an Ohmic resistance. Rather, at low bias, voltage and current aredirectly proportional and R, measured in Ohms, represents their ratio.

Without being bound by any particular theory, Equation (17) indicatesthat net cooling results from competition between a cooling processlinear in current and a heating process quadratic in current. Here,low-bias LED operation is analogous to a thermo-electric cooler (asdescribed above), in which Peltier heat transfer competes with Jouleheating to realize heat pumping. In both devices a finite currentmaximizes cooling power and at lower currents there is a trade-offbetween power and efficiency. Moreover, as sources of irreversibilityare removed from the LED, the LED acts as a reversible Carnot-efficientheat pump operating between the lattice and the photon field.

FIGS. 14-15 also show that both the maximum output power at unityefficiency and the maximum cooling power increase with temperature. Whena small voltage is applied, the energy barrier to thermally assistedinjection is lowered so that the product np rises as in the Shockleydiode equation:

np=n ₀ p ₀ ·e ^(qV/K) ^(B) ^(T)   (18).

Hence for a given magnitude of the dimensionless excitation qV/k_(B)T,net recombination is proportional to the product of equilibrium electronand hole concentrations n₀p₀. For non-degenerate regions, this reducesto the intrinsic carrier concentration squared. Since this quantity is ameasure of the ambient environment's ability to thermally exciteelectrons across the bandgap, it is exponentially dependent on the ratioE_(gap)/k_(B)T:

n₀p₀∝e^(−E) ^(gap) ^(/k) ^(B) ^(T)   (19).

Without being bound to any particular theory, this result explains thevariation in low-bias behavior with temperature. Equation (19) alsosuggests that switching from 135° C. InGaAsSb (where E_(gap)/k_(B)T≈15)to these wider bandgap materials at 25° C. (where E_(gap)/k_(B)T>50)would result in a reduction of the optical power available at low biasby roughly 15 orders of magnitude.

The experimental results in FIGS. 13-15 show that application of aforward bias voltage V less than the thermal voltage k_(B)T/q imposes asmall deviation from thermodynamic equilibrium on the device. Inresponse, the rates of both radiative and non-radiative recombination inthe device's active region have contributions at linear order in V andtheir ratio, the external quantum efficiency η_(EQE), isvoltage-independent. As a result, the LED's optical output power scaleslinearly with voltage while the input power scales quadratically,resulting in arbitrarily efficient photon generation accompanied by netelectro-luminescent cooling of the solid at low bias.

As mentioned above, the extremely efficient electro-luminescenceavailable at sub-thermal voltages could enable efficienthigh-temperature sources for lock-in spectroscopy. For instance, the LEDshown in FIG. 12 could serve as an efficient source around 4130 cm⁻¹ ina 135° C. environment. As the wavelength is extended toward longerwavelengths, the associated decrease in E_(gap)/k_(B)T may improve LEDoutput power and widen the temperature range over which high efficiencyis attained. In still higher-temperature environments, low-biasoperation of infrared LEDs may be much more efficient and diminish theneed for any active cooling. In fact, exposing an LED to exhaust gasesfrom combustion and down-hole spectroscopy could elevate the LED'stemperature, thereby increasing the LED's wall-plug efficiency.

CONCLUSION

While various inventive embodiments have been described and illustratedherein, those of ordinary skill in the art will readily envision avariety of other means and/or structures for performing the functionand/or obtaining the results and/or one or more of the advantagesdescribed herein, and each of such variations and/or modifications isdeemed to be within the scope of the inventive embodiments describedherein. More generally, those skilled in the art will readily appreciatethat all parameters, dimensions, materials, and configurations describedherein are meant to be exemplary and that the actual parameters,dimensions, materials, and/or configurations will depend upon thespecific application or applications for which the inventive teachingsis/are used. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able toascertain using no more than routine experimentation, many equivalentsto the specific inventive embodiments described herein. It is,therefore, to be understood that the foregoing embodiments are presentedby way of example only and that, within the scope of the appended claimsand equivalents thereto, inventive embodiments may be practicedotherwise than as specifically described and claimed. Inventiveembodiments of the present disclosure are directed to each individualfeature, system, article, material, kit, and/or method described herein.In addition, any combination of two or more such features, systems,articles, materials, kits, and/or methods, if such features, systems,articles, materials, kits, and/or methods are not mutually inconsistent,is included within the inventive scope of the present disclosure.

The above-described embodiments can be implemented in any of numerousways. For example, embodiments of designing and making the couplingstructures and diffractive optical elements disclosed herein may beimplemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof. Whenimplemented in software, the software code can be executed on anysuitable processor or collection of processors, whether provided in asingle computer or distributed among multiple computers.

Further, it should be appreciated that a computer may be embodied in anyof a number of forms, such as a rack-mounted computer, a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer, or a tablet computer. Additionally, acomputer may be embedded in a device not generally regarded as acomputer but with suitable processing capabilities, including a PersonalDigital Assistant (PDA), a smart phone or any other suitable portable orfixed electronic device.

Also, a computer may have one or more input and output devices. Thesedevices can be used, among other things, to present a user interface.Examples of output devices that can be used to provide a user interfaceinclude printers or display screens for visual presentation of outputand speakers or other sound generating devices for audible presentationof output. Examples of input devices that can be used for a userinterface include keyboards, and pointing devices, such as mice, touchpads, and digitizing tablets. As another example, a computer may receiveinput information through speech recognition or in other audible format.

Such computers may be interconnected by one or more networks in anysuitable form, including a local area network or a wide area network,such as an enterprise network, and intelligent network (IN) or theInternet. Such networks may be based on any suitable technology and mayoperate according to any suitable protocol and may include wirelessnetworks, wired networks or fiber optic networks.

The various methods or processes (e.g., of designing and making thecoupling structures and diffractive optical elements disclosed above)outlined herein may be coded as software that is executable on one ormore processors that employ any one of a variety of operating systems orplatforms. Additionally, such software may be written using any of anumber of suitable programming languages and/or programming or scriptingtools, and also may be compiled as executable machine language code orintermediate code that is executed on a framework or virtual machine.

In this respect, various inventive concepts may be embodied as acomputer readable storage medium (or multiple computer readable storagemedia) (e.g., a computer memory, one or more floppy discs, compactdiscs, optical discs, magnetic tapes, flash memories, circuitconfigurations in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or other semiconductordevices, or other non-transitory medium or tangible computer storagemedium) encoded with one or more programs that, when executed on one ormore computers or other processors, perform methods that implement thevarious embodiments of the invention discussed above. The computerreadable medium or media can be transportable, such that the program orprograms stored thereon can be loaded onto one or more differentcomputers or other processors to implement various aspects of thepresent invention as discussed above.

The terms “program” or “software” are used herein in a generic sense torefer to any type of computer code or set of computer-executableinstructions that can be employed to program a computer or otherprocessor to implement various aspects of embodiments as discussedabove. Additionally, it should be appreciated that according to oneaspect, one or more computer programs that when executed perform methodsof the present invention need not reside on a single computer orprocessor, but may be distributed in a modular fashion amongst a numberof different computers or processors to implement various aspects of thepresent invention.

Computer-executable instructions may be in many forms, such as programmodules, executed by one or more computers or other devices. Generally,program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, datastructures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particularabstract data types. Typically the functionality of the program modulesmay be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments.

Also, data structures may be stored in computer-readable media in anysuitable form. For simplicity of illustration, data structures may beshown to have fields that are related through location in the datastructure. Such relationships may likewise be achieved by assigningstorage for the fields with locations in a computer-readable medium thatconvey relationship between the fields. However, any suitable mechanismmay be used to establish a relationship between information in fields ofa data structure, including through the use of pointers, tags or othermechanisms that establish relationship between data elements.

Also, various inventive concepts may be embodied as one or more methods,of which an example has been provided. The acts performed as part of themethod may be ordered in any suitable way. Accordingly, embodiments maybe constructed in which acts are performed in an order different thanillustrated, which may include performing some acts simultaneously, eventhough shown as sequential acts in illustrative embodiments.

All definitions, as defined and used herein, should be understood tocontrol over dictionary definitions, definitions in documentsincorporated by reference, and/or ordinary meanings of the definedterms.

The indefinite articles “a” and “an,” as used herein in thespecification and in the claims, unless clearly indicated to thecontrary, should be understood to mean “at least one.”

The phrase “and/or,” as used herein in the specification and in theclaims, should be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements soconjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some casesand disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with“and/or” should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., “one or more” ofthe elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be presentother than the elements specifically identified by the “and/or” clause,whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified.Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to “A and/or B”, when usedin conjunction with open-ended language such as “comprising” can refer,in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other thanB); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionallyincluding other elements); etc.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, “or” should beunderstood to have the same meaning as “and/or” as defined above. Forexample, when separating items in a list, “or” or “and/or” shall beinterpreted as being inclusive, i.e., the inclusion of at least one, butalso including more than one, of a number or list of elements, and,optionally, additional unlisted items. Only terms clearly indicated tothe contrary, such as “only one of” or “exactly one of,” or, when usedin the claims, “consisting of,” will refer to the inclusion of exactlyone element of a number or list of elements. In general, the term “or”as used herein shall only be interpreted as indicating exclusivealternatives (i.e. “one or the other but not both”) when preceded byterms of exclusivity, such as “either,” “one of,” “only one of,” or“exactly one of” “Consisting essentially of,” when used in the claims,shall have its ordinary meaning as used in the field of patent law.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase “atleast one,” in reference to a list of one or more elements, should beunderstood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more ofthe elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including atleast one of each and every element specifically listed within the listof elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the listof elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally bepresent other than the elements specifically identified within the listof elements to which the phrase “at least one” refers, whether relatedor unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as anon-limiting example, “at least one of A and B” (or, equivalently, “atleast one of A or B,” or, equivalently “at least one of A and/or B”) canrefer, in one embodiment, to at least one, optionally including morethan one, A, with no B present (and optionally including elements otherthan B); in another embodiment, to at least one, optionally includingmore than one, B, with no A present (and optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to at least one, optionallyincluding more than one, A, and at least one, optionally including morethan one, B (and optionally including other elements); etc.

In the claims, as well as in the specification above, all transitionalphrases such as “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,”“containing,” “involving,” “holding,” “composed of,” and the like are tobe understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limitedto. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consistingessentially of” shall be closed or semi-closed transitional phrases,respectively, as set forth in the United States Patent Office Manual ofPatent Examining Procedures, Section 2111.03.

What is claimed is:
 1. A light-emitting diode (LED) comprising: anactive region comprising at least one semiconductor having an externalquantum efficiency of about 75% to about 100% to emit visible light viarecombination of electrons and holes; a first electrode and a secondelectrode, in electrical communication with the active region, to applya forward bias of less than about 3.25 V to the active region; and athermal insulator, in thermal communication with the active region, toconfine at least some of the heat generated by the LED to the activeregion so as to thermally assist injection of at least some of theelectrons and holes into the active region.
 2. A light-emitting diode(LED) comprising: an active region to emit light via recombination ofelectrons and holes; and a thermal insulator, in thermal communicationwith the active region, to confine at least some of the heat generatedby the LED to the active region so as to thermally assist injection ofat least some of the electrons and holes into the active region.
 3. TheLED of claim 2, wherein the active region is configured to emit light ata wavelength of about 400 nm to about 700 nm.
 4. The LED of claim 2,wherein the active region is configured to emit light at a wavelength ofabout 1300 nm to about 1600 nm.
 5. The LED of claim 2, wherein theactive region is configured to emit light at a wavelength of about 2.0μm to about 6.5 μm.
 6. The LED of claim 2, wherein the active regioncomprises at least one semiconductor having an external quantumefficiency of about 75% to about 100%.
 7. The LED of claim 2, whereinthe thermal insulator comprises a gas.
 8. The LED of claim 2, whereinthe thermal insulator comprises a transparent substrate.
 9. The LED ofclaim 2, wherein the active region comprising at least one semiconductorthat supports emission of visible light.
 10. The LED of claim 2, furthercomprising: a first electrode and a second electrode, in electricalcommunication with the active region, to apply a bias voltage V to theactive region, wherein qV<w, q is the charge of an electron, and w isthe energy of a photon emitted by the LED.
 11. A method of operating alight-emitting diode (LED), the method comprising: emitting light froman active region of the LED via recombination of electrons and holes;and confining at least some of the heat generated by the LED to theactive region so as to thermally assist injection of at least some ofthe electrons and holes into the active region.
 12. The method of claim11, wherein emitting light from the active region of the LED comprisesemitting light from at least one semiconductor having an externalquantum efficiency of about 75% to about 100%.
 13. The method of claim11, wherein emitting light from the active region of the LED comprisesemitting light at a wavelength of about 400 nm to about 700 nm.
 14. Themethod of claim 11, wherein confining at least some of the heatgenerated by the LED to the active region comprises thermally insulatingthe active region with at least one of a gas or a transparent substrate.15. The method of claim 11, further comprising: applying a bias voltageV to the active region, wherein qV<w, q is the charge of an electron,and w is the energy of a photon emitted by the LED.
 16. The method ofclaim 15, wherein the bias voltage Vis less than about 3.25 V.
 17. Alight-emitting diode (LED) comprising: an active region to emit lightvia recombination of electrons and holes; at least one electrode, inelectrical communication with the active region, to apply a forward biasof less than about 3.25 V to the active region; and a thermal insulator,in thermal communication with the active region, to confine at leastsome of the heat generated by the LED to the active region so as tothermally assist injection of at least some of the electrons and holesinto the active region.
 18. The LED of claim 17, wherein the activeregion comprises at least one semiconductor having an external quantumefficiency of about 60% to about 100%.
 19. The LED of claim 17, whereinthe at least one electrode is configured to apply a forward bias of lessthan about 2.8 V to the active region.
 20. The LED of claim 17, whereinthe active region comprises at least one of GaSb and InP.
 21. Aspectroscopy system comprising: a channel to direct a fluidic analyte;the LED of claim 17 to illuminate at least a portion of the fluidicanalyte with the mid-infrared light; and a detector, in opticalcommunication with the at least a portion of the fluidic analyte, tosense radiation transmitted, scattered, and/or emitted by the fluidicanalyte in response to the mid-infrared light.
 22. The spectroscopysystem of claim 21, wherein the LED is configured to emit themid-infrared light at a wavelength of about 3.0 μm to about 4.0 μm. 23.A method of sensing a spectroscopic signature of a fluidic analyte, themethod comprising: biasing an LED at low bias; applying a current to theLED so as generate heat via an inefficiency of the LED; confining atleast a portion of the heat within the LED so as to generate phonons forthermally assisted injection of electrons and holes; illuminating atleast a portion of the fluidic analyte with mid-infrared light generatedwithin the LED via radiative recombination of at least some of theelectrons and holes; and sensing radiation transmitted, scattered,and/or emitted by the fluidic analyte in response to the mid-infraredlight.